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Byteball data is stored and ordered using a directed acyclic graph [1] (DAG) rather than a blockchain. This allows all users to secure each other's data by referencing earlier data units created by other users, and also removes scalability limits common to blockchains such as the blocksize issue.

There are no blocks: there are only transactions. You just add your transaction to the end of the DAG yourself, without waiting for the miners to (hopefully) include it in some future block.

The killer feature is the Smart/Conditional Payment. You set a condition for how the payee receives the money. If the condition is not met, you get your money back. This substitutes for trust between strangers because neither is able to scam the other.

This smart-contract feature has many real-world peer-to-peer applications, including:

One can send Bytes (Byteball funds) by email, even if the recipient is not in Byteball yet. The sender just writes an email address where he would normally write a Byteball address. When he hits "Send", his email app is opened with pre-filled text for the recipient. The sender can edit it before sending. The recipient receives an email with a link. Example:

Private payments can be made using blackbytes, a cash-like untraceable currency. Its transactions are not visible on the public database that shows all payments made with (white)bytes. Blackbytes are sent peer-to-peer instead in an encrypted chat session.

Byteball has its native currencies, Bytes and Blackbytes. It is also a platform for new assets (coins/tokens) you can create yourself at minimal cost in five minutes. You can simply send your asset to anyone with a Byteball wallet, or you can use your asset in many smart contracts.